NDG Project

Posted 172 weeks ago
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Posted 295 weeks ago

Being Love

“I’m not interested in being a ‘lover.’ I’m interested in only being love.” – Ram Dass

How can you be love? It’s an interesting question, probably not one most people ever consider. Yet the idea that you can embody love in everything you do is quite appealing. Akin to saintliness, perhaps, or what we imagine holy people do. But not us, right, surely not everyday people just trying to get along in life?

Not so fast. This isn’t a concept to dismiss out of hand. Think for a minute about doing the right thing, helping others instead of yourself all the time, going for the greater good in life and not striving for an accumulation of wealth and things. These are components of being love, although they only begin to touch at it. The truth is that love has no limits, so being love, in turn, means that there are no hard edges of love that you can point to, nothing that says love stops here and is no more.

Getting back to the hard-to-grapple-with idea of being love, what can any person do to nourish that outlook on life and help it flourish? Here are a few suggestions.

Think before you act.

Envision the consequences — good or bad — of everything you do before you do it. See 10 years down the road and try to imagine the ramifications of your actions. If your intent is to make a difference in the world, to give of yourself, you will either modify your approach, discard it, or move ahead with your plan. The point is that you consciously decide to do good. Choose your thoughts and actions. This helps you in your quest to be love.

See the good in everything and everyone.

This isn’t at all easy to do. There’s a lot of bad in the world and some horrendously evil individuals causing great pain to others. Think of the good vs. evil balance and see where good triumphs over evil. Surround yourself with those friends, co-workers, family members and loved ones who try to do the right thing. If you look for good you will find it. And the more good that you see, the more you’re inspired to demonstrate love yourself.

Practice makes it easier.

Instead of thinking how to be love, just focus on goodness. There’s a similarity between love and goodness that’s undeniable. Indeed, you can’t have love without goodness, although you can be good without being love. Still, making your life about doing good and being good is a healthy step toward being love. The more you do this, the easier it will be. The idea is to get to the point where you don’t have to think about it and just do it — goodness, that is, which will transform into being love at some point.

There’s always a second chance.

Maybe you think you only have one opportunity to get it right, to figure out how to live a right-side life, to be love. You’d be wrong. Just as most religions espouse the notion of forgiveness for sins and the ability to remake your life into something better, you always have the beacon of a second chance. Many of us have felt pain, endured suffering, gone through difficult times of great emotional turmoil. It wasn’t good and it certainly wasn’t easy. But that doesn’t mean the rest of our lives will be characterized by such negativity and misery. We can choose to live differently, to strive for good, self-improvement, helping others, and finding and being love.

In the end, each person makes a conscious choice how he or she will live their life. It’s also never too late to make a new beginning. Striving to be the best version of ourselves is the motivating force behind being love.

by Suzanne Kane, Psych Central

Posted 295 weeks ago

Our neighbors are not just those who we live next to, but, every person we come across as we go through our days.  Loving our neighbors means going out of our way to assist them in any way we can so that in some way their day is better for having interacted with us.  This could simply be in the form of a smile, a few kind words, lending a helping hand, listening, buying them a tea or coffee or paying it forward in any other way…giving of ourselves to show we care…

Posted 296 weeks ago

Posted 296 weeks ago

Posted 296 weeks ago

CHANGING WHAT’S INSIDE

Think of the people you know who give love in response to negative energy that’s directed their way. There aren’t many people who respond lovingly in that situation. The ones who do are able to because they have love to give away. They know that it’s impossible to give away what they don’t have, and they’ve gone that extra mile to acquire what it is that they want to both attract and give away. If love and joy are what you want to give and receive, then begin by taking stock. What have you got to give away? What are you giving out to the universe, and thus, what are you attracting? Remember that you can’t give away what you don’t have, but you can change your life by changing what’s going on inside.

Low energy attracts low energy. Low energy thoughts, such as anger, hate, shame, guilt, and fear, weaken you. And they attract more of the same. By changing your inner thoughts to the higher frequencies of love, harmony, kindness, peace, and joy, you’ll attract more of the same, and you’ll have those higher energies to give away.

To begin to change what’s inside you, become more loving toward yourself. In your thoughts, cultivate an inner voice and attitude that’s 100 percent on your team. Imagine an inner self that only supports and loves you. You might schedule a certain time of day when that’s the only thought that you allow yourself to pay attention to. Gradually this loving attitude will extend to other people. You’ll begin to receive this energy back and ultimately be able to send thoughts of love and joy to everyone and everything in your world.

Make a pact to remind yourself often of this secret of not being able to give away anything that you don’t have. Then work on your personal program of self-love, self-respect, and self-empowerment, and create a huge inventory of what you wish to give away. If what you give is self-respect and self-love, the universe will return the love and respect you’ve been radiating. It’s really so simple. As the Beatles said: “The love you take is equal to the love you make.”

Posted 297 weeks ago

Posted 297 weeks ago

ON BEING A GOOD NEIGHBOR - The parable of the Good Samaritan

25 On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

26 “What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?”

27 He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’[a]; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’[b]

28 “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”

29 But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

30 In reply Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. 31 A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. 32 So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. 34 He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. 35 The next day he took out two denarii[c] and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’

36 “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”

37 The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.”

Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”  Luke 10:25-37

Posted 297 weeks ago

LIVING IN LOVE

“There is a desire within each of us, in the deep center of ourselves that we call our heart. We were born with it, it is never completely satisfied, and it never dies. We are often unaware of it, but it is always awake. It is the Human desire for Love. Every person in this Earth yearns to love, to be loved, to know love. Our true identity, our reason for being is to be found in this desire. Love is the “why” of life, why we are functioning at all. I am convinced it is the fundamental energy of the human spirit. the fuel on which we run, the wellspring of our vitality. And grace, which is the flowing, creative activity, of love itself, is what makes all goodness possible. Love should come first, it should be the beginning of, and the reason for everything.” ― Gerald G. May, Living in Love

Posted 298 weeks ago